Bzzagent: Barilla Gluten Free Pasta

Look what arrived in the mail this past weekend compliments of Barilla and Bzzagent! 

I'm always on the lookout for great tasting gluten-free pasta. I can't wait to try them out; looking at pasta recipes for this week's dinner menu. Will be back and update with my review.

Cult Nails Spontaneous

After months on hiatus, I'm finally back with a new post in the blog,  The past few months have been extremely busy.  A new demanding position at work, and with kids home during the summer months, left me with very little time for myself.  All work and no play has made me a not-so fun person.  I missed sharing my nail polish obsession, so I hope to be back and posting more regularly.  Now, back to nail business...

While I may have been away from my blog for months, it certainly did not hinder me from acquiring new additions to my collection.  A new brand for me was Cult Nails.  Maria, founder and creator, released a very special collection this past July.  Coco's Untamed Collection was created by Maria's, then not-quite thirteen year-old daughter, Coco.  The collection consists of five beautiful colors.  Being that I am a purple lover, Spontaneous immediately jumped out at me.

Maisie Shine Friday Night

It's Friday Night!  What's the perfect nail color to kick-off my weekend?  Maisie Shine Friday Night, of course!

I have to first apologize for showing you a color that is currently not available.  But seriously, how gorgeous is this color?  How can I possibly not share?  Here's a closer look at this beauty in the bottle...

Fourth of July Nails

Happy 4th of July everyone!  

I hope everyone is enjoying the day.  Our morning started off with going over to city hall to see the 4th of July parade; followed by a nice brunch out.  We got back home and got all the prep done for the BBQ.  While my hubby is manning the grill, I thought I come by with a quick post.

OPI I Have A Herring Problem

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I'm so sad it's almost over, but I look forward for a short work week with 4th of July coming up in a few days for us in the US. I spent all of Saturday working in the yard,planting and trimming back over-grown trees and bushes, and cleaning out our patio. Feeling a little achy (aging is so cruel), operation patio and yard clean up continues today. I am taking a bit of a break right now to do a quick post.

Even though my nails are in need of some TLC right now, which will be taken care later this evening, I have a recent mani to share.

Dior Venis Electric Blue 606

The boldest and brightest blue nail polish I own.  This is Electric Blue, one of five colors from Dior's limited edition collection, inspired by Anselm Reyle, a German contemporary artist.

Two years ago, I would have shyed away from this color. It was much too bright, and perhaps a little too shocking for me to wear. However, today it's a totally different story. I am quite a bit more daring when it comes to nail color. I don't mind my nails making an entrance before I do.

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Pride

Deciding on what I was going to wear on my nails for Memorial Day was easy.  My newly acquired bottle of Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Pride was the obvious choice.  Plus it was sitting there, on top of my computer desk, just screaming to be worn.

Pride is described "a patriotic mixture of red, white and blue glitters in various shapes and sizes, topped off with a hearty dose of star shaped glitter."  This is one of seven limited edition glitter shades, from the summer collection, Seven Deadly Sins.  I am proud, not ashamed to say, I have acquired six out of the seven in the collection.

Lush Lacquer Party Rockin'

Another newly discovered indie brand I'm just trying for the first time.  I picked up 3 colors from the Lush Lacquer store on Etsy.  Karin and Lexi are the owners of the Lush Lacquer, a mother and daughter "best friend" duo that creates fabulous glitter combination nail polish.  How wonderful is that?!

Party Rockin' immediately caught my eyes as I quickly tore into my package.  I knew it was going to be a winner when I first ordered it, but seeing this in person was beyond amazing.  Just wow!  I could not wait to wear this one.  My mind immediately begin surveying the colors I could pair this with.  So many options and I was at a loss for a color.  But after a couple of days of consideration, I decided to pair it with another newly arrival color.

Essie Shift Power

About a month ago, we took the kids to see the movie, Mirror Mirror.  Julia Roberts stars as the evil Queen, and she had this amazingly beautiful gold nail polish on.  The gold was not overly yellow gold, but paler and softer, almost matte, and yet mirror-like.  Oh gosh, does that even make sense?  While I thought the movie was "meh", I couldn't stop focusing in on the gold nail polish.  It commanded my full attention throughout the movie.  Seriously, I mentally went through every single gold polish I can think of, trying to figure out which one Miss Julia was wearing.  It was a little crazy; I could not stop thinking about it.

I recently participated in a nail polish box exchange.  It just happens I was next in line to received the box of polish.  When I went through all the bottles, I found this gold sitting in there, Essie Shift Power.  This was released in winter 2008 collection, and apparently it's also know as Shifting Power.  I'm not really sure why the two different names.  Not a normal pick for me, but my recent gold obsessed self said "yes, let's give this a try!"

Orly After Party

I'm a little out of the loop on new releases, so when I saw this Orly color at Ulta, I had no clue which collection this was part of.  I own nothing like this color it in my collection, and it's perfect for my taste, so it came home with me.  Because I love the color so much, I had to put it on immediately.

Orly After Party is a brand new release for summer 2012 color collection called Feel the Vibe.  Whoa, summer collection?  This is not a color that comes to mind for summer.  A quick google search took me to Feel the Vibe promo pictures, and After Party indeed stuck out among all the neons and brights in the collection.  Personally, I think After Party would have been more fitting in the Dark Shadow collection instead.  Regardless, I am very pleased with After Party.

Haze Glaze Frozen Ube

I've falling terribly behind on my posts...  Working a full-time job and still manage to fulfill my motherly duties has proved difficult in keeping up with my blog.  Short on time, I decided instead of removing my previous mani of OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? I would try to make it last a couple days longer by layering a glittery top coat over it.

As of late, I've falling into a mad obsession for indie concoctions.  It's the latest rage in the nail polish community; I tried to avoid it, but I couldn't resist after seeing beautiful swatches posted over and over again everywhere on the internet.  I had to give this a try!  A great reason to reach for one of my newly acquired Haze Glaze Frozen Ube.

OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?

Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? is just one of twelve colors released for the spring/summer 2012, Holland collection.

Tooted as being nearly identical by the nail polish addict community, I skipped over Zoya Tru for Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?  Though both have great formulas, I simply have a preference for the flat OPI pro-wide brush.

Deborah Lippmann Waking Up In Vegas

Although named after a Katy Perry song, Waking Up In Vegas, from Deborah Lippmann spring 2010 collection, was made famous by Lady Gaga.  Any nail polish addict would remember infamous September 2010 front cover of Vanity Fair UK.  Lady Gaga was photographed, wearing nothing but a to-die-for sparkling diamond choker by Fred Leighton, and beautiful manicured grey nails.  The cement grey nail polish was an instant hit, and became the much talked about "it" color everyone wanted to have.

Described as "putty-liscious gray", Waking Up In Vegas is a warmer version of grey.  The super chic color is midway between grey and beige, making it very wearable for all skin tones.  A hip and fashionable color, but still remains very wearable for the office.

An Easter Mani

Good evening everyone!  For those that celebrated Easter, I hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend with family and friends.  We are pretty low key here, but my kids sure do enjoy their Easter basket goodies.  Chocolate bunnies and jelly beans galore; what's not to love, right?  Well, I am now patiently awaiting for their sugar high to come crashing down.  Believe me, it can't come soon enough. 

I am still working through my stash of "untrieds" and weed out the colors that are not working for me.  Pastels are not colors I normally reach for, and I don't own many colors falling in that category.  I'm trying to step of my comfort zone and try something different.  Needless to say, Easter is the perfect opportunity to challenge myself.  

Honestly, I am not very good with nail art, and work has been extremely time demanding these past couple of months.  I haven't had time for myself, forget about putting thoughts in planning out my mani.  I usually grab whatever color is close, usually that has been whatever nail mail has just arrived. 

Haze Glaze Mystique

Haze Glaze is an independent brand I recently discovered.  I only picked up 2 colors to try out, but I have to say her glitter color creations are just fantastic!  They are even prettier in real life than in pictures.  I wish I had picked up a couple more colors.

For my first Haze Glaze mani, I decided to try out Mystique.  Mystique is dark blue jelly base filled with various sizes of hexagonal and square glitter, in blue, gold, silver and brown.  So beautiful!  Because it was a jelly, I decided my best bet was to layer it. Besides, I didn't want to unnecessarily waste a drop of this concoction.

Barielle Misbehaving Mistress

Here'a an oldie that doesn't get much attention.  This is Misbehaving Mistress from Shades by Barielle, a Barielle color line introduced in the fall of 2008, in a collection called Fall Affair.  Notice the bottle design?  It does look a bit dated, right?  The newer Barielle bottles don't have that same bottle design.  I'd say a definite improvement.

Even for an oldie, Misbehaving Mistress was, and still is a very unique color.  It actually stands out and apart from all the other charcoal based colors in my collection.  The polish  name, Misbehaving Mistress... I find it highly amusing.  Not really sure why, but I do.  To me, the color is very fitting to the name.

China Glaze Starboard

Hope everyone had a wonderful Saint Patrick's Day.  As usual, I'm late in the game to posting my holiday/celebration themed mani.  I can blame the awful weather we have had all week.  Raining days make for terrible picture taking.   I still gave it a shot because the color was just too pretty not to share.

Gone are the days of sharing a pitcher of green beer with my friends.  What's changed?  Kids and the fact I'm just getting older.  But we still can have fun and celebrate a little right?  Aside from the usual corned beef and cabbage dinner, which was super yummy by the way, I also sported a green mani my kids approved.

Dior Vernis Garden Party Collection: Waterlily 504 and Forget-Me-Not 694

From Dior Garden Party, the spring 2012 collection includes two new limited-edition colors:  Waterlily and Forget-Me-Not.  I have to say the colors were very well chosen.  They captured the essence of a spring garden perfectly.  When I look at the colors, my mind immediately conjures up images of a Claude Monet painting.  Beautiful.

Not only are these colors visually appealing, Dior decided to appeal to another one of our senses... smell.  By now, I'm sure you have all heard these are scented.  Again, taking the garden theme to heart, these carry a subtle scent of roses.

I know, I'm a little late to Garden Party.  I originally wrote off the collection, not because I didn't find the colors beautiful, but because I'm not much of a pastel color wearing gal.  As always, something about Dior colors always end up pulling me in...  I gave up fighting and grabbed the colors.  So shall we get started?

Ozotic 513

Ozotic is an Australian brand nail polish I have been wanting and waiting to try for a long long time.  What attracted me immediately to this brand is their holographic colors.  Not just any old holographic nail polish, but linear holographic!  The good stuff that can't be found in the US, unless imported.  

Sadly, I never did take the plunge.  I've admired them from afar, staring at beautiful swatches posted over my favorite nail blogs.  Then last Christmas, I was gifted several Ozotic colors from a wonderful woman during a secret gift exchange.  When I opened the the package, all I can say was "Wow!"  Just one look and I was fast in love... gorgeousness!  It wasn't just love; it was lust!

Project Red: Ulta Professional What a Maroon

I couldn't resist this little beauty when I found it over in the clearance section at Ulta.  Yes, perhaps I have too many reds already.  But quite honestly, it's really hard to resist a great shade of red, especially at a bargain price.  I admit it, I am weak to bargains.  I think that may be my problem too.

What a Maroon definitely is lighter than what the name may suggest.  Not nearly dark enough to be called "maroon", but it is a very beautiful, medium toned red with a slight brown base.  It's a crème that is "jelly-like", with definite transparent quality to it.  I have no idea if the color is part of any collection, but it looks like Waht a Maroon may have been a limited color, or it was discontinued.